Stephen has covered sports in the tri-state area for the Times Free Press for more than 25 years and was named Sports Editor in February of 2015 after 10 years as assistant sports editor.Pinpointing the exact moment when a prep football program establishes itself is a rare find. But for everyone involved with Boyd-Buchanan football, it's agreed that the seminal moment came early in the 1996 season.
Until then, during the first 20 years of existence, Boyd-Buchanan football had as many winless seasons as years with winning records (2) and had never reached the playoffs. The Buccaneers had won a combined 10 games in the five years leading up to the 1996 kickoff.
But then came Robert Akins as coach, bringing Grant Reynolds in as defensive coordinator, and the staff had a group of 28 kids who were fed up with losing and willing to work to change the program's direction. In the second week of the 1996 season the Bucs went to top-ranked South Pittsburg - a program just two years removed from a state title and that hadn't lost to a region opponent in more than three years - and pulled off one of the biggest prep football upsets in area history.
In the two decades since then, Bucs football has warmed itself by the fires built that night, becoming one of the state's most consistent contenders - winning 10-plus games 11 times, claiming 12 league championships, reaching the playoffs in all but one of those 20 seasons, advancing to at least the quarterfinals 11 times and playing for four state titles, winning one.
That matchup - the Bucs vs. the Pirates - has evolved into one of the area's best small-school rivalries, and it will be renewed tonight on the same Beene Stadium field where the Bucs' magic began 20 years ago.
"Boyd-Buchanan had never come close to beating them previously, but after our first drive I knew we had a chance," said Akins, now the head coach at Ringgold. The closest the Bucs had previously come to the Pirates was a 22-point loss; every other meeting had been decided by at least 48 points.
"In my opinion, that game turned the whole program around," Akins continued. "There's no doubt it was the pivotal game for the season and everything we did after. It laid the foundation for us to realize we could play with anybody and formulated the idea that we could be a good team."
The Bucs had enough talent to play with most of the teams on their schedule, including quarterback Jason Blair, running back Kevin Plemons, tight end Dallas George and defensive linemen John Chamberlin, Trevor Case and Mark Keown. But the biggest reason for the turn in fortune, aside from a new coaching staff, was senior Chris Talley, a slightly built 5-foot-8, 145-pound two-way Tasmanian devil at running back and free safety.
Against the Pirates, Talley was in on 17 tackles, scored on a short run and blocked an early punt to set up another score, helping Boyd-Buchanan build a 17-0 first-half lead.
"We had a group of parents who got to the game late," Akins recalled. "When they saw the score they didn't realize the 17 points was on the visitors' side of the scoreboard, so they mentioned how we were keeping the game closer than they expected. They didn't realize we were ahead.
"I had never had a back who could make some of the cuts and make people miss the way Talley could. And he had a natural instinct for how to always be around the ball defensively. He was a special talent."
Talley went on to a breakout season, leading the city in rushing (1,510 yards) and scoring (23 TDs) as the Bucs rode the wave of confidence from their upset win to finish the regular season a perfect 10-0 - the only team in Akins' accomplished career to go unbeaten in the regular season - and reach the second round of the state playoffs.
"We had been bad for years and we were just sick of losing," said Talley, who grew up in South Pittsburg and had played in youth leagues with many of the players he helped beat. "I think that game had everything to do with us going undefeated. We said on the bus ride back that if we could beat South Pittsburg we can beat anybody. It changed the whole way we looked at ourselves."
Since that memorable upset two decades ago the teams have been on equal footing, each winning 11 times - including three years when they met in both the regular season and playoffs. In nine of those matchups both teams were state-ranked, as they are tonight, including twice when each was the state's top-ranked team in its respective classification.
"Being a part of the team that won that game and built the foundation for the program is still one of the things I'm most proud of in my career," Reynolds said. "We spent all week trying to convince our kids we could play with them. We earned some respect that night. Then we just kept building off the success for the rest of the season and really, every year since."
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293. Follow him on Twitter @StephenHargis